Category condo

Philly Good Food Lab is coming to North Philadelphia

 
It looks like the coworking concept has now made its way to the local food industry in Philadelphia, as Common Market introduces Philly Good Food Lab.

If you’re unfamiliar, here is Common Market’s purpose: “We are a mission-driven distributor of local foods to the Mid-Atlantic region. Our mission is to strengthen regional farms while making the local bounty accessible to communities and the institutions that serve them. We provide the infrastructure to connect public and private schools, hospitals, universities, grocery stores and workplaces to good food grown by our region’s sustainable farmers.”

To be honest, I have not heard much about them until now; but they’re doing some cool things. Not only have they created a new business niche, but they are reusing old warehouse space in North Philadelphia.

Brilliant!

Okay, back to Philly Good Food Lab. The goal for PGFL is to bring like-minded food entrepreneurs and food companies together under one roof so that they can feed off of each other daily (no pun intended). By following the coworking mantra, the goal is for PGFL businesses to take advantage of a large and professionally set up space (i.e. 70,000 sq ft of space, dry and cold storage, loading docks, etc.), keep overhead low, and keep local networking high.

Sounds like an awesome plan, and I wish them the best of luck!

Postgreen plans more mixed-use projects

Postgreen, the green/sustainable developer behind such projects as 100K House, Skinny Project, and Avant Garage, is planning more mixed-use projects in Kensington.

One of the projects, dubbed FRANK, will be 1-2 commercial spaces connected to 10 market-rate condos. The other “as-yet-to-be-named” project, will most likely be 1 commercial space connected to 4 market-rate apartments.

I have to say, not only is it encouraging to see mixed-use projects become the new construction norm for Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, but it’s also great to see developers believing in condos once again. Most of the larger and mid-sized projects currently being planned/built in Philadelphia have all been apartments, which makes sense given that rents are up and do not have an end in sight. But condos encourage home ownership, with an emphasis on first-time buyers.

The last real estate boom/bust created a huge oversupply of condos (not only in Philadelphia, but across the US), which drastically reduced their value. It wasn’t because condos didn’t make sense in a city like Philadelphia, it was because too many were planned to be built when the bottom dropped out and banks tightened up their condo lending standards due to high foreclosure risk. Hence, a larger drop in value than most single family homes.

As Postgreen continues to dominate the Fishtown/Kensington landscape, I’ll keep you posted on the status of their proposed developments. If you’ve never heard of Postgreen before and would like to learn more, check them out.

Single Family or Condo?

It’s a popular question among buyers today, and even more popular in a dense city like Philadelphia.

What it really comes down to is, “What do you want?” What area of Philadelphia do you want to live in? What is your price range? Do you want a yard? Are you looking for amenities (i.e. gym, pool, etc.)? Maintenance or no maintenance? High-rise or low-rise? These questions are only the tip of the iceberg.

Personally, I have lived in a condo for close to a decade now and there is nothing I would change about it. There is no exterior maintenance needed, some of my utilities are included, and there are 2 swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) and a gym on site. These were things I wanted when I was searching for a home back in 2003, and they’re still things that I appreciate today. But not everyone wants the same things I want, so this is why I posed the question.

Some buyers would rather not buy at all than share a wall with another homeowner. It’s completely understandable, and it comes down to personal taste. Your best bet is to look at both options in person, and then decide what might be the right option for you.

Sometimes you are forced to go one way or the other due to prices, fees, etc.; but you’ll never know unless you look.